Paediatric cutaneous lymphoma in Korea: a retrospective study at a single institution

Abstract

Background: The clinical features and incidences of cutaneous lymphoma (CL) differ by ethnicity and age. However, there is to our knowledge no study to show characteristics and distribution of paediatric CL in Asian population.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate distinctive clinicopathological features of CL in paediatric population, particularly in Korea.

Methods: We conducted a clinicopathological review of 41 paediatric cases with CL, diagnosed at Asan Medical Center from January 1990 to December 2012. The clinical records, haematoxylin & eosin-stained slides and immunohistochemical stains from paediatric patients with CL were analyzed. In addition, the results in this present paediatric group were compared with previously reported studies in the Korean all-ages group and Western paediatric group.

Results: Lymphomatoid papulosis was more common in the present paediatric group than in the all-ages group (34.5% vs. 9.4%) and Western paediatric group (34.5% vs. 17.7%). Mycosis fungoides, the most common cutaneous lymphoma in the all-ages group and Western paediatric group, is the second most common subtype in this study. Three of nine paediatric mycosis fungoides patients (33%) have the follicular variant. Compared with all-ages group, B-lmphoblastic lymphoma was relatively higher incidence (10.3% vs. 1%) and NK-/T-cell lymphoma and subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma was relatively in lower proportions in the paediatric group.

Conclusion: The clinical features and distribution of paediatric CL in our study suggest that CL of Asian childhood is quite different from that of adulthood and Western childhood.